Chapter 107 – The Cut and the Crossfire
The cut in the rock narrowed until they were moving single-file again, the air damp and still. Every step echoed back at them in soft, uneven beats. Somewhere far behind, the shouts of Feretti's men faded into wordless noise, replaced by the sharp clatter of loose stones under hurried boots.
"They know this route," the stranger murmured from the rear.
Kairo didn't answer. His eyes swept the shadows ahead. The narrow passage could be a blessing — impossible for their pursuers to flank them — or a death trap if someone was waiting at the other end.
The cut suddenly widened into a small bowl of stone. Jagged walls rose on all sides, leaving only two ways in or out — the path they'd come from, and a steep notch on the far wall. The stream they'd been following pooled here, a dark mirror beneath the pale sky.
Kairo stopped dead. "Quiet."
Elira froze mid-step. She could hear it now — a faint, deliberate scrape of metal on stone above them. Her eyes followed Kairo's upward, and her stomach clenched.
Two figures crouched at the rim, rifles angled down.
"Down!" Kairo's shout came just as the first shot cracked. The bullet sparked against the rock inches from his head. Elira dove behind a boulder, heart pounding, cold seeping into her palms where they pressed to the icy ground.
The stranger rolled to one knee, rifle swinging up with calm precision. He fired once, and one of the figures above flinched, falling back from the rim.
Kairo was already moving, darting from cover to cover toward the far notch. Another shot rang out, grazing the rock near his shoulder.
"We can't stay here!" Elira called, her voice sharper than she intended.
"Then move!" Kairo's reply cut through the chaos.
She bolted from her cover, boots slipping on wet stone. The stranger covered her with a burst of fire, forcing the second shooter to duck. Kairo caught her arm and pulled her into the shadow of the far notch.
The passage beyond was steeper than it looked, half-choked with loose scree. Kairo went first, half climbing, half scrambling, his breath sharp in the cold air. Elira followed, fingers numb, every muscle burning from the climb. The stranger came last, his movements deliberate, firing a single shot back into the bowl before vanishing up the slope.
When they reached the top, the land dropped away into a sweeping view of the ridge pass. Snow drifted across the narrow path ahead, the wind howling in short, vicious bursts.
"They'll still be behind us," Elira said, chest heaving.
Kairo glanced back the way they'd come. "Not for long."
He pulled a small charge from his pack — a block of pale explosive wrapped in oilcloth — and knelt to set it in the rock at the pass's edge. The stranger's brow lifted, but he said nothing.
Kairo lit the fuse with a match, the wind threatening to snatch the flame. "Move," he ordered, already stepping back.
They had barely cleared twenty feet when the charge blew. The sound tore through the mountains, the shockwave rattling the stone under their boots. A plume of snow and rock erupted into the air, and when it cleared, the narrow pass behind them was gone — buried under tons of debris.
Elira exhaled slowly, her breath shaking. "That'll slow them."
Kairo's gaze stayed on the smoking ruin. "It won't stop them. But now they'll have to choose another path… and that gives us the night."
The stranger adjusted his rifle strap, watching Kairo with a faint, unreadable smile. "I'll admit — I wasn't sure you'd risk sealing us in here too."
Kairo's reply was flat. "If we were sealed in, we'd be dead already."
They turned toward the ridge path, the wind pressing against them, the snow swallowing their footprints almost as fast as they made them. Somewhere ahead lay the next move — and maybe, if they were lucky, a place to finally stop running.